The present invention relates to word processors and more particularly to a word processor feature which limits movement, copying and deleting of word processor text within a single document and among documents where the text block to be moved, copied or deleted includes one or more hyperlinks.
Recent advances in electronic data entry and storage have rendered it extremely easy to enter, store and retrieve many different types of information. Perhaps the most common type of electronically stored information includes word processor documents which can be entered into a computer memory via any of several different commercially available word processor packages. Other types of information which are commonly electronically stored include pictures, video clips, audio clips, graphs, charts, tables and so on. For the purposes of this explanation, all types of electronically stored information will be referred to generically as information objects or simply objects. Thus, a video clip will be referred to as one object, a word processor document will be referred to as another object, etc.
To focus this explanation, this explanation will be presented in the context of a hospital environment where specific types of objects are commonly electronically stored. However, it should be understood that the present invention is not to be limited to the hospital environment, but rather, is applicable to many different environments and many different object types.
Objects are stored at specific addresses in electronic storage devices and each object can be accessed by selecting the specific address associated with the object. Because the number of stored objects associated with a computer system often becomes voluminous, object addresses are routinely referenced by long character strings which are difficult to remember and therefore are difficult to indicate to a processor when an object is to be accessed. This is particularly true where an object is stored on a computer network such as a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN) which may have several hundreds or even thousands of users, each of which can access many different objects stored on the network. Object addresses are even longer on the Internet where virtually millions of addresses are defined.
To facilitate easy retrieval of an object, most computers include an object management system which allows an object creator (i.e., a user who initially enters an object) to fashion an object specific name. For example, a video showing a portion of an open heart surgery might be accessible via the name "OPEN HEART SURGERY CLIP 1" whereas an audio tape of an irregular heart beat might be accessible via the name "IRREGULAR HEART BEAT CLIP 1". The object name is linked to the object address such that when the object name is specified, the processor correlates the name with the address, locates the desired object at the correlated address and retrieves the object for viewing and/or editing when appropriate.
Object management systems also typically include an object directory which can be accessed to view all object names and to select one or more objects from the directory for viewing. Object selection is usually carried out by using a mouse or the like to select a desired name.
Several word processor features have increased the value of word processors appreciably. Two important features include text block modifications and hyperlinks.
Text Block Modifications
Often a block of text which already exists in a first document is identical to, or nearly identical to, a text block which should be provided in a second document. In this case, instead of manually reentering the text block in the second document, a copy and paste word processor feature allows a user to select the text block in the first document, copy the selected text to a buffer, enter the second document, select an insert point within the second document where the text block should be inserted, and then dump the text block from the buffer into the insert point.
Similarly, it is often desired to move text from a first location within a single document to a second location within the same document. In this case a move and paste word processor feature allows a user to select the text block to be moved, copy the selected text to a buffer, select the location within the document where the text block should be inserted, and then dump the text block from the buffer into the insert location.
One other useful text block modification feature is the ability to select blocks of text within a document and delete whole blocks using a single key stroke.
Hyperlinks
Often several objects are related and a full understanding of information presented via a first object can best be appreciated by referring to related objects. For example, a first word processor document might describe pre-surgery details of a patient's condition and treatment, surgery and post surgery condition and treatment. Objects related to the first word processor document might include a pre-surgery MRI image, a pre-surgery X-ray image, a graph illustrating pre-surgery weight loss, a video clip illustrating a key portion of the surgery and some unexpected symptoms, a post-surgery MRI image, a post-surgery X-ray image and a graph illustrating post-surgery weight gain. The first word processor document might refer to any or all of the related objects. Preferably, each object referred to in a document should be easily accessible to fully understand what is expressed in the referring document.
One way to access a second object when the second object is referenced by a first object is to return to the object directory, identify the second object in the directory, select the second object and view the second object. While accessing an object via the object directory is possible, this solution is relatively difficult to implement and is time consuming. In addition, accessing an object directory causes relatively large gaps in a users train of thought and therefore might in fact cause confusion instead of aiding a user's understanding of the referring document.
One relatively recently developed word processor feature, the hyperlink, has made it relatively easy to access one or more objects from within a document displayed on a monitor without returning to an object directory. A typical hyperlink includes three components, a hyperlink phrase which is akin to an object name, a hyperlink address akin to an object address, and a hyperlink site.
The hyperlink phrase typically appears within other text in a word processor document which is displayed on a screen for viewing. The hyperlink phrase may be highlighted in some manner. For example, often highlighting will take the form of a bold text or a uniquely colored text (e.g. blue). A hyperlink phrase is related to a specific hyperlink site by an associated hyperlink address and usually is descriptive of the related site. For example, a hyperlink phrase "OPEN HEART SURGERY CLIP 1" might include a video clip illustrating an important portion of an open heart surgery. By selecting a specific hyperlink phrase, a user selects an associated hyperlink site and automatically displays the object stored at the selected site. Hyperlink selection is typically performed by using a mouse controlled arrow to select the hyperlink phrase.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/727,293 entitled Method And System For Automated Data Storage And Retrieval With Uniform Address Scheme, which was filed by the present inventor on Oct. 9, 1996, describes one method in which hyperlinks can easily be formed within a word processor document. According to the method and system discussed therein, each document created is associated with a specific subject. For example, a hospital record is associated with a specific patient. As information is provided to a processor to create a patient record or report, the processor recognizes phrases and automatically creates hyperlinks which can thereafter be used to access objects related to the document. For example, a hyperlink phrase "PRE-SURGERY MRI IMAGE" would be recognized by the processor as a hyperlink phrase. To create the hyperlink, the processor correlates the hyperlink phrase with a pre-surgery MRI image specific to the patient for which the document is being generated. This is important because there may be many pre-surgery MRI images stored on a hospital data base but only one which is associated with the specific patient. After a hyperlink is created, whenever the patent report is observed via a monitor, an observer can select the phrase to view the associated hyperlinked object.
While each of the hyperlink, copy, move and delete features described above greatly increases word processor usefulness, when these features are used together, some peculiar and unintended results may occur. For example, assume that a physician at a medical facility performed an open heart surgery on a first patient and a procedurally identical surgery on a second patient one week later. After the first surgery the physician creates a detailed report concerning the pre-surgery, post surgery and surgery conditions and includes several hyperlink phrases associated with objects related specifically to the first patient.
After the second surgery, in order to reduce the time required to generate a report for the second patient, the physician accesses the first report and uses the copy and paste word processor feature to copy text blocks from the first patient's report into the second patient's report. In this case, in addition to copying the text block, if a hyperlink phrase is included in the text block, the hyperlink address associated with the copied hyperlink phrase is also copied.
Unfortunately, when the copied hyperlink phrase is later selected, the selected phrase accesses an object related to the first patient's surgery, not the second patient's surgery. For example, a heart video clip will show the first patient's heart, not the second patient's heart. If the physician forgets to revise the addresses with hyperlink phrases in copied text blocks to access objects related to the second patient, the second patient's report will be inaccurate and essentially unusable for future medical documentation and diagnostic purposes.
Similarly, even within a single patient's report, text block copying can result in incorrect object references. For example, a hyperlink phrase referring to a post-surgery MRI image may be copied from a first to a second section of a patient's record which discusses a pre-surgery MRI image. In this case, while the physician may edit the text block to refer to a pre instead of a post-surgery MRI image, the hyperlink will still be formed to the post-surgery MRI image. For this example, when accessed, the pre and post-surgery images are identical.
Another problem which results from facilitating both hyperlinks and copying, moving and deleting text via a word processor is that some text block copying, moving and deleting can result in unintended creation or destruction of hyperlink phrases. For example, where a hyperlink phrase exists in a document and a text block to be moved or deleted within the document includes a portion of the hyperlink phrase, when the text block is moved or deleted the hyperlink will no longer exist as the hyperlink phrase is fragmented. Similarly, after a text block is moved or copied to an insert point in a document, the beginning or ending characters of the text block together with characters just before or just after an insert point may form a new hyperlink phrase for which the processor will generate a new and unintended hyperlink.
For these reasons a need exists to provide some type of limiter to control copying and moving of text blocks including hyperlink phrases between two or more documents and within a single word processor document and to limit block deletions which include hyperlink phrases within a single document.